Happy Friday!

I work with a lot of people who are trying to get a new job and get hung up on the compensation. They inevitably experience a dilemma of seeing how much compensation they could potentially make, but they don't want a crappy job either.

Which kind of raises the question about how much you think you're worth or how much is your happiness worth?

Or more to the question I prefer---what kind of lifestyle do you want and how much does that cost?

I find that people get fixated on compensation because it is often the most visible part of looking for a job, but when it comes down to it, many are pursuing that money because they can.

So, my advice is simple in this regard: Take time and detail out your desired lifestyle. Put a rough number to how much that lifestyle costs. Now you have an ideal compensation you want to work towards. Now, think about what would have to be in a job to make you regret taking it. This is your floor.

Equipped with this, you can evaluate jobs not on if the comp is ideal, but if the job as a whole takes you a step closer to your ideal, and your floor protects you from a situation you'll eventually regret.

Now, I put the title as how much are you worth. This last bit is probably the hardest thing for most people I coach to accept. You bring immense value to the people around you and the company as a whole. Keep a journal where daily or weekly you just write down any accomplishments you have. If you wrote an awesome email, write that. If you solved a crisis, write that.

This develops your own realization of the good things you do. When you are better able to see what you bring to the table, you can begin to slowly connect your actions to the impacts it has, and ultimately a dollar value. While many companies won't pay you anything close to this value, it can help you to refine your own personal sense of worth, and that can carry you through lots of tough times.

Also, a quick hack to assign dollars to things is to look at how much your company recently paid a consultant. That'll probably give you a pretty quick boost in how you assess your own value.

So, I know things like keeping a journal or setting some lifestyle goals are tedious, but give them a shot. I'd love to know what you come up with.

Sincerely,

Ryan Latta